
Ai' 




BANANAS 



NATURE'S INSTITUTION FOR THE PROMO- 
TION OF LAZINESS 



By EDWARD \Vl' PERRY 



* V J, oo., ,', ■>',"* 



: . J ■>., ' ' ^ i' J ^ ^ 



COPYRIGHTKD 

1903 

BY HARRY \VILKIN TKRRY' 



Cu J, 

Two COPIeiP Rf=CE(VED 

OCT 2b 1903 

*) / ^ V J" 
COPY B- 



REVISED EDITION 



NOTE 

The chapter given in the following pages is from a work en- 
titled : " Tropicai, America: Its Pi^anters and Planta- 
tions," now in preparation. Sports Afield said of the author : 
" Probably no American is more competent to write of the coun- 
try life than is this author, who, because of his long-trained habits 
of observation, careful search for the bottom facts and weighing 
of details, of deducing therefrom the essentials and presenting 
them clearly and concisely, has made the best possible use of 
his time and experience." 

< (,. ttlCct til 

* t e t I 




CHAPTER III. 

Nature's Institution for the Promotion of 
Laziness. Bananas : What they are, how 
they grow, what they cost, and what they 
give to man. 

Long before the dawn of history in the Old World, 
ma3'hap long before that Old World arose from the 
waters, man lived on the fruit of the Musas. There 
are those who would tell you that the banana is the 
fruit which tempted Eve, to the downfall of Adam ; 
and that evidence of the truth of this may be found in 
the fact that if one will cut across a banana, of the 
right kind, he may find in its heart the sign of the cross; 
and in the other fact that men of learning have given 
to a banana the name of Musa %)aradisiaca, which being 
interpreted means the Fruit of paradise, and to another 
banana they have given the name Mvsa sajnentum, 
which the sapient know means the Fruit of knowledge. 
IvCss evidence has serv^ed well enough to burn heretics 
at the .stake. 

Man has carried this gigantic herb to every fertile 
spot in a belt that girdles the waist of the globe — a 
girdle that is four thousand miles and more in width. 
Millions uncounted have looked to it for the chief of 
their diet, as other millions have looked to the cereals. 
And to this hour puling babes and doddering ancients 
are fed with the fruit in all its stages and conditions, 




A BUNCH OF HANANAS 



THE MAKING OF A BANANA PI^ANTATION 5 

green or over-ripe, raw or roasted, baked or fried, 
liquid or dried. At least forty species of the Musos are 
known and described, and of these there are several 
sub-varieties. They have been classed by Dr. Sagot 
into three groups, as follows : 

Giant bananas, of which M. ensete is the type. In this 
group no suckers are formed. Fruit leathery and not edible, 
with few seeds. 

Fleshy-fruited bananas; 31. sapicnhmi the type. Stem pro- 
duces suckers; spike long and decurved; fruit fleshy and usually 
eatable. 

Ornamental bananas. Spike often erect, not pendant; 
bracts persistent, brightly colored, each with a few flowers on 
its axil; suckers many; fruit leathery, 31. rosacea furnish 
familiar examples of this group. 

When in the course of human events it becomes 
necessary for the single man of the tropics to take unto 
himself a helpmeet for him, and to provide for other 
events likely to come after, he selects some fertile spot, 
usually on the border of waters over which his canoe 
may easily carrj^ the bulky harvests he will have ; and 
there he cuts down tree and vine, bush and bamboo, and 
lets them lie as they fall in tangled mass. Every da}^ the 
ardent sun helps the constant wind to shrivel leaf and 
twig until, one day, the windward edge of that snarl is 
touched by the torch, and in a moment a blazing hades 
is where a cool and shady grove will soon rustle in the 
breeze. 

When the last flame hss flickered out and coals lie 
dead beneath their gray shroud, women paddle to that 
place with canoes laden with banana sprouts. With 
machetes they dig little pits amid charred stumps and 
trunks and branches, and in each hole they set a sprout. 



6 HOW BANANAS GROW 

Then they go away to wait, and rest; and the vSun 
shines warmly down into that clearing, breezes sift a 
gray veil of ashes over the wilted suckers that look 
like black and ragged stakes; and at last come 
showers which wash them clean. 

Those stakes are made up of sheathes of leaves 
tightly rolled one around another, the inner ones nar- 
row, cream-colored and tender; those nearer the outer 
ones wider and j^et wider, until the outer one is reached. 
The outer one covers nearly or quite three-fourths of 
the stem. When the warm rains fall, the tender leaves 
unroll and spread to their widest, and the sun dries and 
the wand whips them until soon they are split into nar- 
row ribbons; and a few weeks after that planting a sea of 
giant leaves waves and whispers in the breeze — a roof 
of bright and tender green covering the moist, black 
ground. 

Not before the plant has grown to a height of ten 
to twenty, and in some places to thirty feet, does the 
flower-stem begin pushing its way up from the base 
through the middle of the stalk. In a short time it 
sends out at the top one or more leaves, smaller than 
their older fellows, as a signal that flower and fruit 
will quickly follow. Soon every supporting column 
of those graceful arches ends in a cone of red that 
deepens into purple and swells until its outer petals are 
crowded off by the fatness of the fruit they hide, that 
these may have air and light. Under those petals the 
baby bananas are packed close, like fingers tightly grip- 
ping the parent stem. These closed ranks, each sepa- 
rate hand or whorl reaching half way around the stalk, 
grow so quickly that in «-ix or eight weeks the bunch 
v/eighs fifty pounds or more. 



BANANAS THAT ARK FIT TO COOK 7 

To most people of northern climes bananas are 
merely — bananas. For such folk know as little of the 
many varieties of bananas as they know of the many 
and varied uses of that fruit. Perchance that is why they 
fry the common yellow guineo which comes by millions 
of bunches each year to the United States, and then won- 
der that folk who have dwelt in the tropics, and who 
extol fried bananas, show nevertheless that they cannot 
like the mushy, cloying mess set before them here. He 
who grows bananas, and she who cooks them for him, 
select for frying that thick-bodied, hard-fleshed and 
rather tart fruit which they call platano, and which is 
by blundering English-speaking tongues misnamed 
plantain. And even among the platanos there is room 
for choosing, for there are of them several varieties. 
Best of these is that little one which bears, on the 
Mosquito Shore whence good bananas come, the Span- 
ish name "miel," or honey, coupled with the Waika 
word ' ' silpe, ' ' or little. The name ' ' maiden ' ' platano 
also is given to the " little honey," most fittingly, for 
it has just enough of piquant tartness to give unfailing 
relish, yet is tender, plump and mighty comforting 
withal, upon occasion. 

If he is so lucky as to live near a port where steam- 
ships stop, the planter may sell his platanos for a cent 
or even two cents for each finger or fruit; and as the 
plants may be set only eight or ten feet apart, and each 
will mature a bunch of thirty to fifty fingers every nine 
months, it is clear that he who has an acre of platanos 
may have a tidy income of food or of cash. Usually 
the planter prefers to eat this food, for which reason 
people in the North have few opportunities for learning 



8 GOOD TO EAT, GREEN OR RIPE 

the superior virtues of the fruit. The planter is quite 
right, for the platano is the one banana fit to be cooked; 
and is by no means bad to eat raw. 

Sometimes a planter may leave a bunch of bananas 
to ripen on the standing stalk, but that will rarely be, 
for the fruit so ripened is strong in flavor, dry and too 
soft to bear transportation; its skin splits, and ants, 
bees and other insects gather about the exposed flesh. 
Therefore the women lug home green bunches and 
hang them in the house to ripen, where ever3'body who 
has the right — and that is ever}^ visitor, every member 
of the family and every passing acquaintance — may 
pluck and eat as the fruit turns 3^ellow and becomes 
tender. Meanwhile many of the fruits will have been 
taken from the bunch, peeled and broken into bits, to 
be boiled with beef or pork, or flesh of the deer, peccary 
or other game. 

Another sub- variety of platanos bears, in Mosqui- 
tia, the name of " butuco," perhaps from the name of 
the River Patuca — or may be the river has taken its 
name from the banana. The butuco is perhaps rather 
more tart than the miel silpe, and when fried reminds 
one of fried greening apples, and when stewed has 
somewhat of the flavor of stewed peaches. In either 
way it is most agreeable to the taste. There are other 
platanos, also, most of them giants among bananas, 
many being fifteen or more inches long and some two 
or three inches in diameter. These are firm in flesh, 
resist decay much longer than do the common guin- 
eos, and will, therefore, much better bear transpor- 
tation. They should become known to the millions 
Df northern lands, for they would afford a vast supply 



WHAT BANANAS ARE WORTH AS FOOD 9 

of food much more convenient and palatable than, and 
equal in value to, potatoes. 

Prof. Wynter Ely the, of London, is an analyst 
-vho tells us that the relative values of bananas and 
sago, corn meal and wheat flour are as follows : 



Constituents 


Banana 


Sago 


Corn Meal 


Wheat Flour 




Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Water. 


8.05 

4-45 


13.00 


II .09 


15.08 


Soluble albumen dextrine 




Starch 


82.57 


78.06 


85-30 


81.60 


Albunienoids 


2.28 


2-57 


2-37 


2. II 


Fat 


0.77 








A.sh 


1.88 


0.53 


0.43 


0.35 



In a report on the constituents and food values of 
most articles in common use on northern tables, the 
United States Department of Agriculture gave, in the 
year 1903, very valuable figures which show that nine- 
teen vegetables and ten varieties of fruits which make 
up the chief of our diet, have the following parts and 
values : 



Elements 


Vegetables 


Fruits 


Bananas 


Carbohydrates, parts 

Fats 

Protein 


8.9 
0.4 
2.0 
0.9 
73-0 
14.8 


II. I 

0.4 

0.6 

0-5 

64-3 

23.1 


14-3 
0.4 
0.8 


Ash 


0.6 


Water 


48.9 
35 


Refuse 


Fuel values 


203.9 


204.0 


2(.O.0 



This shows that while of valuable nutritive ele- 
ments, the nineteen fresh vegetables have 11.3 parts 
and the ten varieties of succulent fruits have 1 2. i parts, 
the bananas have 15.5 parts. From this it appears, 
also, that if the fresh fruits and vegetables were ac- 
tually worth, as food, say $1.17, bananas of like weight 
would be worth 38 cents more. 



BANANAS VS. BEEF AND WHEAT II 

Statements made by other anah^sts seem to warrant 
the deduction that the nutritive value of a ton of pota- 
toes, at one cent per pound, is 19 cents more than that 
of a ton of bananas aj: the same price. There is a differ- 
ence, too, in the cost of production of a ton of potatoes 
and the cost of raising a ton of bananas. The field for 
potatoes must be plowed and harrowed in the spring, 
the seed dropped in furrows, which are then to be 
covered, after which comes cultivating again and again 
until the time has come for digging and picking, cart- 
ing, sacking and hauling, often to a distant market. 

Luckily for the millions who have depended so 
largel}^ on the banana for sustenance, the plant has 
few, if any, insect enemies and diseases, in which they 
differ somewhat from some fruits and tubers of the 
North. 

Man}^ times an assertion has been printed to the 
effect that Humboldt said that an acre of bananas 
yields forty-four times as much food as does an acre of 
wheat. In the year 1902 the average yield of wheat 
in the United States equalled 12.79 bushels, or 767.4 
pounds. This had a food value equal to nearly one- 
third that of the average output of bananas from an 
acre. It is often said that one pound of bananas has 
as much nutrition as has a pound of beef. The truth 
is that one pound of beef is worth three and one-third 
pounds of bananas. Bananas are far enough ahead of 
tlie harvests the farmer of the North gets, without 
making exaggerated claims for the fruit of the tropics. 

So the planter of bananas has each year four and 
a half times as much palatable food from an acre as 
the farmer gets from his potatoes: and there is the 



12 WHERE BANANAS MAY BEST BE GROWN 

further difference that the one has bananas at no other 
cost than that of keeping down bush and grass and 
vine, that would quickly cover every vSpot to which the 
sunshine could penetrate, along the edges of the plan- 
tation. For bananas 3'ield j^ear after 3'ear without re- 
planting. Each new sialk springs from the foot of its 
parei't, grows to a height of fifteen to thirty-five feet, 
bears its burden of luscious fruit, and dies; but not 
before it has sent up from its own root new stalks to 
fruit and die — and so on through the centuries. 

He who would grow bananas for market must 
plant on the border of navigable waters p-iving accCvSS 
to some harbor or anchorage where ships may safely 
lie while receiving the fruit. For it is easil}^ bruised, 
and wetting by salt water blackens the skins, thus in- 
juring or preventing the sale. Plantations are usually 
on the banks of rivers or of estuaries, but some are 
beside railroads, to which the frwit is carried by carts 
thickly carpeted with banana leaves. A cruder way is 
to hang a few bunches over the back of a burro or of a 
mule, which plods along to the shipping place. 

It is evident that the entire area which can so be 
devoted to banana culture- must be small, for most 
Central American and Mexican rivers are obstructed 
at their mouths by sandbars, over which ships cannot 
pass. Bluefields, Nicaragua, has been a most profit- 
able field for banana growing, because it has a river 
into which sea-going ships can safely enter, and up 
which such ships may go fifty or sixty miles, and re- 
ceive their cargoes from landings on the plantations 
which border the Rio Escondido. Yet millions of bun- 
ches of bananas have been shipped from the open coast 



SOME PROFITS OP THE TRADE 13 

of Honduras, where the one good harbor is that at 
Puerto Cortez. 

Other milHons have been shipped from Port Limon 
and from Bocas del Toro, in Costa Rica, whence a few 
hundred bunches were sent as a beginning to the United 
States in the year 1883. Twenty years later the port 
of Limon itself sent 4,174,200 bunches to the markets 
of the world. They brought to Costa Rica credit for 
producing the best bananas known. 

For ages the native of banana lands was content 
with the fact that he got from his plantation more than 
enough food. Some thirty-five yesLVS ago a few bold 
men ventured to pav twelve or fifteen cents a bunch 
for a few cargoes in the Bay Islands, off the coast of 
Honduras, and carried them to the Gulf States. There 
they found they could sell the fruit, for there lived 
people who had traveled to the tropics, and learned to 
eat their foods. To-day millions of bunches are each 
year sold in the United States and even in Canada, and 
in 1902 ship-loads were sent from Costa Rica direct to 
Europe. That little republic alone received not less 
than §1,127,400 for bananas sold abroad during the 
year that ended with September, 1902. 

The United Fruit Company, of Boston, was formed 
in tl'e year 1888, and ten years later was said to have 
a surplus of more than §6,000,000, owned thousands 
of acres of bananas, and had built expressly for its 
fruit carr3'ing business four superb steamers, and em- 
ployed many others. 

It is safe to assume that more than §6,000,000 was 
paid in the year 1902, in Central America alone, to 
planters of bananas. Nearl}^ all of that was paid by 



14 WHERK BANANAS ARE AT THEIR BEST 

products of American farms, factories and forests. 
Farmer, manufacturer and miner, lumberman, railroad 
man and sailor, merchant and broker of this countr}-, 
are all concerned in and benefited by the work done in 
shady aisles beneath banana leaves on the banks of 
tropic rivers. 

Bananas reach their best estate on the low, deep 
alluvium near the Caribbean coast, where the tempera- 
ture never sinks below 60° and is seldom below 80° F. 
Such low lands serve all the better if flooded two or 
three times in the year, for the banana will drink much ' 
water, and such floods bring silt from the hills, and thus 
keep the ground fertilized without cost to the owner. 
In 1897 the famed banana fields of the Rio Escondido 
were so deeply flooded that the steamship ' 'Saga" voy- 
aged through the main streets of Rama, fully sixty 
miles from the mouth of the river, to pick off from 
their roofs the dwellers in that town. The bananas 
barely showed their tops above the yellow flood. 
Along the coast flew reports that the plantations were 
ruined; subscriptions were asked to help the planters: 
and three months later they were harvesting better 
crops than in years before. Their plantations had been 
so enriched that they bore most bountifully. 

Bananas may be grown wherever there is some 
moisture and no near approach to the frost line; but a 
touch of frost cuts down the banana as a breath from 
a fiery furnace would blight a tender lily. The city of 
Tegucigalpa is 3,600 feet above the level of the sea, 
yet in that town is a field some thirty feet above the cur- 
rent in the swift river which it borders. It is very dry 
during months of each year, but in that field are plata- 



FOR WHAf BANANAS ARE TRUIvY GOOD 1 5 

nos which reach a height of more than twenty feet 
and bear bunches enough comfortably to support the 
owner. In narrow caiion and wider valley near 
that place are many patches of bananas which bring to 
their planters a sufficient income. And at that altitude 
the mercury sometimes falls below 65° Fahrenheit. 

In the land of bananas, cats, dogs and pigs, mules, 
horses and cattle, parrots, babies and all other domestic 
animals thrive on this perfect nature-food, when they 
can get it. I have seen an Indian woman pry open 
with her fingers the jaws of a baby peccary, and with 
a gruel of green bananas choke off its incessant, rasp- 
ing cry of " ma, ma!" And the next instant she put 
that same calabash of gruel to the lips of her own babe 
of three or four months. I've seen other Indians feed 
infant tapir, suckling jaguar, skinny squabs of parrots 
and very young monkeys on such pap, which those folk 
call wabool. I, myself, have safely carried abandoned 
cardinals through from their infant days of a beggarl}^ 
few pin feathers to those of full regimentals of brilliant 
scarlet and epaulets of jet; and they were as overflow- 
ing with joyful song and saucy happiness as they could 
have been had worms and bugs been the chief of their 
diet every day of their lives, instead of the bananas on 
which they had been largely fed. 

Why not, indeed, when cakes and beer, brandy 
and sugar, pies, puddings and sauce, and many anoth- 
er thing good for man to take for his stomach's sake, 
are made from bananas. So, too, are paper and laces, 
brushes, and cloth, and cordage enough to pull up the 
earth by its roots, if only we had a place to hook the 
tackle. 



INSURANCE THAT DOES INSURE I7 

When he has set out an acre or two of bananas, 
the planter need have no fears for the future. He has 
ample insurance against such privations as come from 
illness, accident or old age: and they who by a little 
labor pay for such insurance share each day its mate- 
rial benefits. No need for them to die that others may 
enjoy the blessings of such wise provision; nor need 
the planter toil with hoe or spade, cultivator or plow. 
It may be he will vSlash away with machete such vine 
or sapling, grass or weed as happens to obstruct his 
path; but as a whole he interferes as little as possible 
with the operations of kindly Mother Nature. She is 
more than ready to do his work: he is willing to let 
her do it. 

He whose acre of bananas has been well planted 
has on it 225 hills, or 900 stalks. Each stalk will give 
him a bunch which, on rich, new ground, should weigh 
60 pounds, say 54,000 pounds each 12 or 14 months. 
That is the theory. The fact seems to be that the av- 
erage yield is really 175 to 300 full bunches to the acre 
per annum, say a mean of 270 bunches weighing about 
16,000 pounds. The average yield reported all along 
the Caribbean shore and from Jamaica, during a dozen 
years, equaled 270.95 full bunches an acre per annum. 

In the year 1902 the average yield of potatoes in 
the United States was 80.44 bushels per acre, and the 
average farm value was 49 cents per bushel, or $39.45 
an acre. In Costa Rica the average price of bananas 
on the plantation was equal to at least 27 cents a 
bunch. At that figure 261 bunches would bring $70.47. 
In August, 1903, the price was raised to 3 1 cents a bunch 
on contracts to run three to five years; which should evig 



l8 WHAT SOME PLANTERS HAVE DONE 

$84.00 per acre each year. That is a cash difference 
of $44.55 in favor of the man whose bananas raised 
themselves for him. There was another difference in 
his favor, for his fruit may be eaten green or ripe, ravr 
or roasted, boiled or fried, with fish, flesh or fowl, or 
with none of these. 

Those who dwell in the mountain regions, far from 
the ports whence bananas are shipped, dip in lye and 
dry in the sun many a platano. It is then shriveled, 
moldy-looking and altogether unlovely; but if kept 
dry it remains sweet and wholesome many a year. It 
may be eaten uncooked, when it is a gummy, sugary 
paste; but drop it into scalding water, put it into a hot 
oven, or stick it up beside the fire, and it becomes might- 
ily puffed up, tender and savory. It might be sent thus 
dried to feed the people of the North or of Europe, for 
it would be easily packed and carried. 

Naturally the intelligent planter concerns himself 
mainly with the question What is the cost, the yield 
and the profit of banana growing ? There are evidences 
that man}^ people in the North feel a livel}^ curiosity 
about the same points. 

Before one can give a trustworthy reply to such 
question he must study the evidence of those who have 
had opportunity to learn the truth, and he should be 
able to present the general averages of the results shown 
by many such witnesses. The planter of medium abil- 
ity and industry may confidently expect to attain the 
average results; he who has less intelligence and thift 
should not complain if he fails to get as good returns; 
he who shows more than common skill, application and 
energy will win greater reward than is shown by the 



WHAT THEY COST AND WHAT THKY GIVE 



I? 



average of the banana-growing of the many, as in other 
occupations great skill and industry bring the larger 
rewards. 

Reports covering j^ears of experience by thousands 
of planters in the West Indies and along the Atlantic 
coast of Mexico and of Central America, indicate that 
the cost per acre of making banana plantations and 
cultivating and harvesting the first crop therefrom, the 
yield in bunches and the income, are as shown in the 
following table : 



Countries 


Bunches 


Income 


Cost 


Profit 


Costa Rica 


250.0 

267.5 
294.0 
2,88.0 
280.0 
246.2 


S 70 67 
124 36 
121 13 
109 48 
123 61 
86 36 


$ 28 84 
42 80 
18 97 

27 5S 

28 12 
22 07 


$ 41 ^3 
81 56 


Guataiuala 

Honduras 


Jamaica 

Mexico 

Nicarai^ua 


81 90 

95 49 
64 29 




Averages 


270.95 


S105 94 


S 28 06 


$ 77 S7 



From the foregoing it appears that the general 
average yield per acre during the twenty years covered 
by the figures given, was 270.95 bunches per acre; the 
average cost per acre was §28.06, which was only 10.3 
cents per bunch. The profit per bunch was 28.7 cents, 
or 287.9 per cent. 

A report dated August i, 1903, by Las Haciendas 
de Santa Clara, Costa Rica, which has 550 acres of 
bananas in full bearing, and where wages are one colon 
or 47 cents per diem, gives the cost of cultivating and 
delivering the fruit at the railroad, as $17.69 per acre, 
the yield at 173 bunches and the income at $54.90 an- 
nually. That shows that the bananas cost 10.2 cents 
per bunch, and that the profit was 20.8 cents a bunch, 
or 200 per cent. But as the fruit is sold five years 



20 YET BETTER PROFITS INIIGHT BE MADE 

ahead at those figures, the small percentage of profit 
may be regarded as a fair return for the investment, 
combined as it is with an assurance of continued gain. 

There are those who insist that the higher results 
shown in the foregoing table may easily be obtained by 
an}' one who will give as much thought and labor to 
growing bananas as are required for the successful rais- 
ing of corn or of potatoes. It is true that the figures on 
which the averages shown are based were, in many 
cases, from the experience of native and other planters 
of little diligence and skill, and that they got smaller 
results than might easil}' have been obtained. It may 
be possible that if one will allow two or three stalks to 
rise from each stand of bananas, and together mature 
their fruit, he many get 444 to 780 bunches from an 
acre each of a few 3xars, and that in such a case he 
might get $185 to $278 for the crop; but it will be clear 
to all that he who expects to make only 270 bunches per 
annum from an acre, and get only J78 profit therefrom, 
will be safer than he who invests his money with the 
expectation of making greater gains. 

The Hand Book of Nicaragua, published by the 
Bureau of American Republics, which is under the di- 
rection of the U. vS. Department of State, says : 

There is, perhaps, no industry in Central America that is 
more attractive to men of small capital than banana growing, 
from the fact that the clearing of" the land is effected cheaply, 
and from the small cost of after-cultivation, which is limited 
only to such clearing of weeds and undergrowth as may be suf- 
ficient to allow access to the trees, and the short time necessary 
to produce a payinjjj crop. When the trees and 1)rush that have 
been cut mi clearing the land 1)ecome sufficiently dry, they are 
burned, and the banana suckers are then ])lanted amonjr the 



BANANAS JUST CAUSE FOR DISCONTENT 21 

charred remains and aslies, without any further preparation of 
the vSoil. The best resuUs are obtained by giving the trees plenty 
of space, say from 15 to 18 feet apart. In about ten months the 
first fruit can be gathered ; but in the second year the trees 
reach maturity, and by a proper management of the fruit stalks 
in a fair sized plantation a constant succession in the crop may 
be secured, and fruit gathered every week throughout the year. 

The only careful work necessary on a banana plantation is 
in handling the heavy bunches so as to avoid bruising them, as 
an}' such injury causes a black spot to appear, beneath which 
decay quickly begins as the fruit ripens. The natives have 
learned by experience when they cut into the fruit stalk so to 
gauge the strength of the blow as to cut just deep enough to 
cause the stalk to bend slowly over until the end of the bunch 
reaches the ground, when another slash with the machete severs 
it, and it is loaded carefully into the cart. 

A plantation of 40 manzanas (about 69 acres) will, during 
and after the second year, produce about 54,000 bunches. The 
lowest price paid for bunches for some years past is 3 7 4^ cents 
per bunch, which would give an annual value of the crop of 
^20,250, or more than double the expenditure for purchase of 
land, clearing, cultivating and gathering the crop, and all ex- 
penses to the end of the second year. 

As the cost of producing bananas after the first 
crop from a plantation is confined to cultivating and 
harvesting, which may be done for $io per acre 3xarly, 
it is scarcely wonderful that Judge O'Hara, late U. S. 
Consul at Grey town, Nicaragua, a lawyer whose acute 
mind is trained to sifting evidence, reported to the De- 
partment of State at Washington regarding banana- 
growing on the Atlantic coast of that republic, that : 

It seems reasonably certain that bananas on the Bluefields 
River pa}^ better than many crops in the United States. * * * * 
These figures would seem to indicate that at the end of a year 
a planter having 36 acres of bananas under cultivation would 
have 13,847.32 left after paying for all necessary labor and pro- 



COMPARED WITH THE CROPS OP THE NORTH 



23 



visions — figures apt to bring discontent to an American farmer 
having but 36 acres of wheat or corn; and especiall}^ so when 
he compares the price of his land, ranging from ^15 to $So per 
acre, with that of land in eastern Nicaragua, where cultivated 
lands may be said to have no established market value, few im- 
proved plantations having ever been sold. 

Such discontent might be aggravated by consider- 
ation of the differences which exist between the results 
.obtained from the chief eight crops of tne United States 
and those shown by the foregoing summary of banana 
farming. These differences are illustrated by the fol- 
lowing figures, those for the crops of the North show- 
ing the yield and values for the year 1S97. The last 
column shows the difference in favor of bananas per 
acre : 



CROPS 


Yield 
per acre 


Value 
per acre 


Difference, fa- 
vor of Bananas 


Barley, bushels 


23.11 
16.08 
24.62 
27.19 
80.44 
13-30 
12.78 
1.26 
7<f7-3o 


$12 34 
9 69 
9 51 
8 29 

39 45 

S 22 

10 II 

10 93 

55 81 


$93 59 
96 25 

96 43 

97 65 
66 49 

97 72 
95 83 
95 01 
50 13 


Buckwheat " 


Corn, " 


Oats, " 


Potatoes, " 


Rye. " 


Wheat, " 


Hay, tons 


Tobacco, pounds 




General averages 




|i8 28 


S87 66 



From this it is evident that bananas give five and 
one-half times as much as the principal crops of the 
United States give the farmer for his toil. 

Maii}^ native planters seem content with the re- 
turns their bananas give, and appear to have no 
thought of increasing that income. 

" Why don't 3'ou -plant more bananas? See how 



24 pi^anters have money enough 

well this little patch has paid," I have said to many of 
them. 

* ' Wh}' should I do that ? Have I not plenty to 
eat? I have enough money; if I plant more I shall 
have to do more work to get more mone)^ which I 
don't need," is the substance of their rej^lies. 

Years ago U. S. Consul Burchard complained of 
the banana business of the Honduras coast, that "A 
large proportion of the fruit-growers were formerly 
vacqueros in the interior, working on a salar}^ of $30 
to $4.0 a year. They are now owners of plantations, 
and have a steady income of J30 to §300 a month. 
The large amount of money distributed along this 
coast in exchange for fruit would make an}^ civilized 
and temperate community prosperous and happy. 
There would be public and private schools, churches 
and banks, newspapers and libraries, parks and car- 
riages, and handsome dwellings supplied with every 
comfort and luxury, surrounded by gardens of flowers, 
fruits and vegetables natural to this climate of perpet- 
ual seedtime and harvest." 

So it soon will be, for already Italian and German, 
Englishman and American have accepted the invita- 
tion of a most kindly Nature, and the sincere welcome 
of friendly natives, and cottages peep here and there 
from out the glossy greenery, hammocks swing beneath 
the never-ceasing rustle of the palms in the blessed 
trade winds, and the fruit of Paradise gives to all a 
most generous support. 

But those who have good lands back from naviga- 
ble water and remote from railroads, are not without 
hope of profit from bananas. For they may dr\- the 



DRIED AND SUGARED 2$ 

fruit, pack it in dainty boxes with a liberal dusting of 
sugar to fill vacant spaces, and send it to the hungry 
millions of Europe. This has been successfully done 
by planters of Trinidad and of Jamaica, who, in at 
least some instances, found that they could sell the 
dried fruit at i6 to 20 cents a pound. Green bunches 
average nearly 60 pounds in weight, two- thirds of which 
is lost in peeling and drying, leaving about 20 pounds, 
which, at 15 cents, will give J3 per bunch. If the pro- 
duction of the green bananas and the dr^ang should 
cost ^2 a bunch, the income from an acre of bananas 
would be $288 yearly. In practice it has been found 
that the total cost and income of dried bananas give a 
net return of $2.72 per bunch, which equaled about 
$783 per acre 

Both platanos and guineos, or ordinary yellow 
bananas, may be profitably dried or made into flour. 
This will utilize the surplus fruit and such bunches as 
are too small to sell to advantage. Frequent mention 
is made by Stanle}^ of banana flour in his " In Dark- 
est Africa," He strongl}^ indorses its nutritive qual- 
ities, and wonders that the natives did not appear to 
have discovered what invaluable nourishing and easily 
digested food they had in the platano and banana. He 
expressed the conviction that, " If only the virtues of 
banana flour were publicly known, it is not to be 
doubted but it would be largely consumed in Europe. 
For infants, persons of delicate digestion, dyspeptics 
and those suffering from temporary derangement of 
the stomach, the flour properly prepared would be of 
universal demand. During my two attacks of gastritis 
a light gruel of this, mixed with milk, was the only- 
matter that could be digested." 



a6 KXCEIvIvENT DESSERT PRESERVE 

It is interesting to note that such a high authority 
as the " Dictionary of Economical Productions of In- 
dia" says: 

The large crop of food produced by bananas and plantains 
may be preserved for an indefinite period either by drying the 
fruit or by preparing meal from it. When the nearly ripe fruit 
is cut into slices and dried in the sun, a certain part of the sugar 
contained in the fruit crystalizes on the surface and acts as a 
preservative. The slices thus prepared, if made from the finer 
varieties, make an excellent dessert preserv^e, and if from the 
coanser, may be used for cooking in the ordinary way. They 
keep well if carefully packed when dry, and ought to form a 
valuable antiscorbutic for long voyages. The fruit may also be 
similarly preserved whole by stripping off the skin and drying 
it in the sun. Plantain meal is prepared by stripping off the 
husk and reducing it to powder, and finely sifting. It is calcu- 
lated that the fresh c6re will yield 40 per cent, of this meal, and 
that an acre of average quality will yield over a ton. 

Plantain meal is of a slightly brownish color, and has an 
agreeable odor, which l>ecomes more perceptible when warm 
water is poured upon it, and has a considerable resemblance to 
that of orris root. When mixed with cold water it forms a feebly 
tenacious dough, more adhesive than that of oatmeal, but much 
less so than that of wheaten flour. When baked on a hot plate 
this dough forms a cake which is agreeable to the sense of smell, 
and is by no means unpleasant to the taste. When boiling water 
is poured over the meal it is changed into a transparent jelly, hav- 
ing an agreeable taste and smell. Boiled with water it forms a 
thick gelatinous mass, very much like boiled sago in color, l)ut 
Dossessing a peculiar pleasant odor. 

In this connection it may be interesting to note 
that, according to an analysis published in the Aiaer- 
ican Analyst, New York, February i5tli, 1893, the 
chemical composition of bananas and potatoes is almost 
identical, as shown by the following comparison : 



MANY THINGS MADK OF BANANAS 27 

Banana Potato 

Water 75-71 75-77 

Albumenoids ■ I-71 ^-79 

Total carbonaceous matter (non-nitrogenous) 20.13 20.72 

Woody fibre i.74 -75 

Ash 71 -97 

Nor do the food elements in bananas and platanos 
vary greatly, the sum of each being about the same. 

In a communication to Kew by Mr. Louis Asser, 
of the Hague, Holland, it was announced that a syn- 
dicate proposes to take up the manufacture of banana 
and plantain meal and the preparation of dried bananas 
on a large scale in Dutch Guiana. The communication 
referred to gives the following list of commercial prep- 
arations from the banana and the platano : 

1. Dried sHces of the entire frviit (pulp and peel) in the 
starchy state suitable for the preparation of alcohol or for mak- 
ing into a nourishing bread. 

2. Meal in a starchy state from the pulp only for making 
into a superior kind of bread or porridge. 

3. Flakes and meal in a dextrinous state for use in brew- 
eries or for making into nourishing soups, puddings, etc. 

4. Dried peel and coarse meal prepared from it for feeding 
cattle and pigs. 

5. Banana marmalade. 

6. Dried bananas entire without peel put up like dried figs 
in boxes. 

7. Raw alcohol from fresh bananas, and also from dried 
banana meal. 

8. Syrup of bananas for confectionery, for preparation.-, of 
liquors and for sweetening champagne 

9. Banana meal for the manufacture of glucose. 

10. Fibre of banana and plantain prepared from the steins 
after fruiting, and intended for tlie manufacture of paper and 
cordage. 



ABUNDANT AND CHKAP Fl,OUR 29 

Mr. Asser estimates the entire cost of a ton of 
banana meal, delivered in Europe, at $23. This in- 
cludes cost of cultivation, gathering the crop, making 
the meal, and the freight. At that time the average 
market value of Indian wheat in I^iverpool was J30 
per ton. Considering the selling value of the meal to 
be no greater than that of the wheat, the prices quoted 
would show a margin of profit equal to about 30 per 
cent, on the capital invested. 

From British Guiana comes the following inter- 
esting information about platano flour, taken from a 
report by Dr. Shier on the ' ' Starch-producing Plants ' ' 
of that country : 

The plantain is so abundant and cheap that it might, if cut 
and dried in its green state, be exported with advantage. It is 
in this unripe state that it is so largely used by the peasantry of 
this Colony as an article of food. When dried and reduced to 
the state of meal, it cannot like wheat flour, be manufactured 
into macaroni or vermicelli, or, at least, the macaroni made from 
it falls into powder when put into hot water. Plantain meal is 
prepared by stripping off the husk of the plantain, slicing the 
core, and drying it in the sun. When thoroughly dry it is 
powdered and sifted. It has a fragrant odor, acquired in dry- 
ing, somewhat resembling fresh hay or tea. It is largely em- 
ployed as the food of infants and invalids. In respect to nutri- 
tiveness it deserves a preference over all the pure starches on 
account of the proteine compounds it contains. The flavor of 
the meal depends a good deal on the rapidity with which the 
slices are dried. Above all, the plantain must not be allowed to 
approach too closely to yellowness or ripeness, otherwise it be- 
comes impossible to dry it. The color of the meal is injured 
when steel knives are used in husking or slicing, but silver or 
nickel blades do not injure the color. Full-sized and well-filled 
bunches give 60 per cent, of core to 40 per cent, of husk and top- 
stem ; but in general it would be found that the core did not 



30 WHAT EXPERIENCE PROVED 

much exceed 50 per cent, of dry meal, so that from 20 to 25 per 
cent, of meal is obtained from the plantain, or 5 pounds from the 
average bunch of 25 pounds ; and an acre of plantain walk of 
average quality, producing during the year 450 such bunches, 
would yield 4 tons and 10 pounds of meal. 

Ill 1 89 1, C. W. Meadeti wrote from Trinidad to 
the following effect in relation to a trial shipment of 
dried bananas '. 

This experiment will prove of importance to banana grow- 
ers, as drying bananas seems to open a way no other means offers 
of utilizing fruit. It overcomes the difhculty of bad roads, long 
hauls and other drawbacks some planters have to face in mar- 
keting bananas. 

The result of drying six bunches, weighing an average of 
52 pounds per ripe bunch, was 97 pounds of dried fruit. There 
was a loss of two-thirds in peeling and drying. The fruit sold 
for f 19.40, or 20 cents per pound. Deducting freight charges 
left ^15.47, or a fraction under 16 cents per pound. This was at 
the rate of |i2.72 per bunch. The cost was put at 53 cents, which 
covered purchase of land, clearing woods and draining, planting, 
weeding and cutting, drying, fuel, boxes and packing ; but did 
not include cost of dryer, as that would be but a fraction on each 
bimch dried. After deducting the above there was a profit of 
$2.\g per bunch. 

Mr. Meaden said of this : 

I do not desire to set up as a teacher, but facts and figures 
speak for themselves. The account shown is not an approximate 
one, but the money has been received and the Canadians are 
asking for more at the same price. An order is now in hand for 
224 pounds for London at 6d. per pound in bulk, the consignee 
to do the retail packing and advertising. As the fruit is some- 
thing new it is being sought, and all that can be dried is being 
profita])ly disposed of. I may add that the dryer does his work 
well, turning out the fruit in uniform color. Attention nuistbe 
paid to this, and also that fruit as nearly as possible of one size 
be dried, as this facilitates packing. Small ones can be used for 
stock, etc. Twelve good sized fruits weigh one pound. 



NOVElyTlES FOR HOUSEWIVES 3I 

The Daily Gleaner, of Kingston, Jamaica, said in 
March, 1899, in reference to an enterprise on the Mont- 
peHer estate of Hon. Bvelyn Ellis : 

As far as dried bananas are concerned the investment is o 
success. Orders are already taken for more than can be supplied. 
The factory will be duplicated as soon as possible. Every one 
who has tasted the bananas is of the opinion that they are supe- 
rior to figs in every way, and there is likely to be a large home 
consumption as soon as the factory can supply the market. 

Housewives who wish for novelties to lend new 
charm to their tables, to tickle the palate of the epi- 
cure, or to coax the reluctant appetite of the invalid, 
will find them in novel dainties made from bananas. 
Excellent and nutritious bread may be made of the 
flour. Puddings, fritters and sauce have already been 
mentioned ; but bananas glace are new to most north- 
ern folk, and may be made a most delightful addition 
to our desserts. They are superior to dried ligs, for 
when split into four slices, thickly covered with pow- 
dered sugar, and exposed to the sun awhile they turn 
themselves into a jelly-like, delicious and delicate con- 
fection, such as is at its best when made in the native 
home of the fruit, and packed in pretty boxes to be 
sent to people of fine taste in the cold North. 

Having in view all these facts, why should not 
multitudes make homes where scorching heat and bit- 
ing cold are never felt, and tornado and deadly blizzard 
are unknown ; where no destructive floods nor ruinous 
droughts ever come, and never ceasing winds bring 
coolness • from the sea ; where spring is eternal and 
harvests never end, and delicious fruits yield profusely 
all the years ; where the pine and palm together shade 



^2 SECURITY FOR OI^D AGE 

the ground, and the coco and banana 3neld generous 
provision for ever}- need ; where a little work Insures 
against want and care, and health and leisure make 
old age secure and content ? 






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